


Of Heartbreak and Hot Chocolate

by spilledtea



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Brotherly Love, Family, Family Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, I promise, I'm Bad At Tagging, Unrequited Love, april and casey are only mentioned, just a bit of angst though, oof, whoops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-30 05:15:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17822597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spilledtea/pseuds/spilledtea
Summary: Sometimes, Valentine's Day isn't all about romance, chocolate, roses, and all that jazz. Sometimes, there's no need for grand, dramatic declarations of love or anything of the sort. Sometimes, all you need is three of your brothers to cheer you up after your crush gets asked out by someone else to a school dance.In which our favourite purple-banded genius suffers from heartbreak and his brothers do damage control.





	Of Heartbreak and Hot Chocolate

"Leo?"

The turtle in question looked up from his tea, meeting the worried eyes of his baby brother. He's in the kitchen, enjoying a freshly-brewed cup. Raph was sitting next to him, feeding Chompy while simultaneously shovelling cereal into his mouth. The sai-wielder feigned disinterest, but Leo could tell he would be paying attention to the conversation that was about to happen. Even Chompy looked curious as he bit into a leftover pizza slice.

Mikey leaned against the doorway, biting his lip as he waited for his brother's acknowledgement before continuing. Leo frowned at the uncharacteristic behaviour of the youngest turtle.

"Yeah, Mike? What's wrong?" He slid his teacup to the side, opting to give his brother his full attention. The orange-clad terrapin shifted, his forlorn gaze travelling in the direction of the lab. The lab, where frantic footsteps and fumbling can be heard. Earlier, the sound of shattered glass had rung out, followed by a muffled shout from the resident genius to assure everyone else he hadn't hurt himself and that everything was under control. Evidently, it wasn't, but the three of them had collectively decided not to confront Donnie in his current state.

"Donnie's been acting super weird lately..." Stating the obvious, Mikey sat himself down across the table and pouted, wanting to know what was wrong with his brother. Before Leo could say anything, Raph huffed in annoyance, absently petting Chompy's head as he spoke.

"You weren't awake, but Brainiac's sulking because Casey asked April out to a school dance. For Valentine's Day, he said."

Leo grimaced at the memory. Earlier that morning, Casey had waltzed into the lair, loudly declaring that April had said yes. Donnie had been close to having an aneurysm, his mind immediately descending to thoughts of marriage proposals and the like. Leo had gotten the hockey player to clarify what he meant, for the sake of his rapidly-paling brother, but it didn't help much when they found out about the Valentine's Day dance their school was holding the upcoming weekend.

Raph had shooed Casey out, stating that it was still a Thursday and they weren't going to be responsible if Casey's teachers chew him out for being late once again. Leo had tried to check on his purple-clad brother, only for him to run into his lab, shutting the doors behind him with a resounding slam. Afterwards, he had been really distracted during morning training, and Leo hadn't had the heart to reprimand him when his form was sloppy.

A loud crash made all of them jump. Instantly, three turtles, plus an infant alien one, were at the entrance of the lab. Mikey tentatively poked his head inside, the older two terrapins close behind him.

"D? Everything okay in here? Totally didn't hear that mega-loud crash just now, haha... Don?"

Leo pushed the door open completely, immediately catching sight of the newly-overturned whiteboard and his genius brother staring forlornly at it. Scraps of crumpled paper flooded out of the wastepaper basket. Then, he noticed glass shards on the floor, the remnants of whatever poor test tube had fallen earlier. It was a miracle Donnie hadn't been hurt.

Inwardly berating himself for not doing anything about his brother's fragile state, Leo cautiously approached him. Careful not to step on any errant shards, he tried to get Donnie's attention. The bo-wielding turtle hadn't moved or said a word ever since they came in. His red-brown eyes seemed distant, and yet Leo could see the hurt reflecting in them. Behind him, Mikey got to work on sweeping away the glass, preventing any future chances of injury. 

Raph lifted up the fallen whiteboard, revealing scrawls of handwriting, highlighting some admittedly poorly-thought-out plans to infiltrate the school dance. The hothead didn't put it past his brother to nearly commit espionage, especially when his 'sweet chinchilla' was involved, but this was just sad. Everyone could see the heartbreak in each swipe of marker, each piece of balled-up paper.

"Oh, Don..." Leo whispered, surveying the contents of the board. He pursed his lips, taking his heartbroken brother by the hand and away from the lab. He passed by Mikey, nodding meaningfully. In turn, the youngest glanced over at Raph, both of them adopting the same look of resolve as their eldest brother. They had to fix this.

As Raph and Mikey cleared the lab of any unpleasant reminders of the current situation, Leo led Donnie to the kitchen. He knew how gone his brother was on the redhead, but he didn't know that this would affect him to such an extent. And yet, he should've known. He should've known that this would happen, that such an adverse reaction would occur. There was no point in dwelling now. He had to make sure his brother was okay.

"... I guess I should've known she'd choose him, yknow?" 

The quiet confession took Leo away from his thoughts. He had sat Donnie down at the table, checking him over for any cuts he might have missed. The utter defeat in his brother's voice almost broke his heart. He kept quiet, sensing that there was more he wanted to say.

"I mean, it's obvious. They're both human... normal. Who... who would want to be with someone like m-me?" Tears were running down his cheeks by this point, and yet he smiled up at Leo as if he had accepted the fact. The fact that no one could love a mutant in that way. Donnie continued, scrubbing away at his eyes as he let out a soft, slightly hysterical chuckle.

"I just... d-didn't think it would h-hurt this much..." 

With that, Leo couldn't take anymore and simply scooped his little brother up in a hug, height difference be damned. Donnie finally allowed himself to sob his heart out, not caring if his older brother's shoulder and mask tails were slowly getting soaked. The blue-banded turtle patted his brother's shell, whispering words of comfort as Don let out pitiful whimpers.

This was how Mikey found the two, Donnie curled up against Leo's plastron as the older turtle rocked both of them back and forth. The youngest quickly set about making hot chocolate for everyone, haphazardly tossing out Leo's now-cold tea. In the pit, Raph had gathered every single pillow and blanket in the lair and arranged them all into some sort of giant nest. Chompy was contentedly snoozing on one of the cushions, of course, Raph wouldn't dare leave him out of the imminent cuddle pile.

Once Donnie's sobs had turned into soft, intermittent sniffles, Mikey basically dragged him off to the pillow-blanket-nest-thing, cheerily babbling away in an attempt to lift his brother's spirits. To his credit, he did manage to wrestle a smile out of his puffy-eyed brother. Leo picked up the tray of steaming hot cocoa that Mike had left behind before he met Raph at the doorway. His immediate younger brother had a wry smile on his face.

"You think I should kick Casey's ass for this?" He questioned, looking away nonchalantly. Leo huffed out a laugh, shaking his head. While a tempting notion, he doubted it would go over well without any repercussions.

"Let's deal with him later, alright?" He made his way over to the nest, Raph following. Mikey had situated himself and Donnie cosily into the pile, the both of them already starting on a movie marathon. Leo playfully admonished them for not waiting for him and Raph, and he was delighted when Donnie was the one to shoot back a retort. 

As the four of them, plus Chompy, settled comfortably in the nest, an advertisement popped up, trying to get viewers to buy some sort of chocolate in heart-shaped foil. A Valentine's Day advertisement. Leo, Raph and Mikey tensed, watching warily as Donnie sipped at his cocoa calmly. Sure, there was a slight hint of melancholy in his features, but it was quickly lost in a warm smile. 

"Happy Valentine's Day, guys."

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed reading! This was supposed to be a little fic I whipped up for Valentine's Day but it got posted pretty late, as you can probably tell. I wanted to try something different and focus more on the familial love on Valentine's Day because it isn't always about romance, is it? Of course, who better to showcase this than our very own turtle boys! I'll be posting a companion piece/continuation thingy later on, so stick around for that. Until then, cheers!


End file.
